CARCASS AND BLOOD INDICES OF WEANED GRASS-CUTTERS FED DIET CONTAINING SNAIL SHELL AS REPLACEMENT FOR OYSTER SHELL

Abstract

A total of thirty six weaned grass-cutters of mixed sexes of mean weight of 412.23+2.6g were used to determine the effect of inclusion of snail shell (SS) in the diet of grass-cutters on dressing percentage, meat qualities, haematological and serum biochemical indices. Four diets were formulated to contain SS at 0% (SS, which was the control, 50% (SS,), 75% (SS) and 100% (SS_,) as replacement for oyster shell in the diet of grass-cutters. Each dietary treatment was replicated thrice with 3 grass-cutters per replicate in a completely randomized design. Data were collected on dressing percentage, heamoglobin, red blood cell, white blood cell, blood calcium and phosphorus etc. The results of the carcass analysis showed that the dressing percentage was not significantly influenced by substituting oyster shell with snail shell in the diet (P>0.05). The red ‘blood corpuscles, haemoglobin and white blood cell values were not significantly influenced (P>0.05) by the inclusion of snail shell in the diet and fell within the recommended range It could be concluded that carcass qualities and blood indices were not significantly influenced by the inclusion of varying levels of snails shell as partial or total replacement for Oyster shell in the diet of weaned grass-cutter, hence snail shell could be used as replacement for Oyster shell in the diet of weaned grass-cutters